Wednesday

Feb 6, 2019 at 12:01 AM

After hearing about hateful comments made toward Southeast High School students about winning the Spirit Award, the 15 students of the Mayor's Youth Council didn't want those words to be what defined the city of Springfield.

So the students, who come from all of the city's high schools, on Tuesday night at two crosstown games handed out rubber bracelets that spelled out what they wanted: #unityinourcommunity.

The bracelets, which were donated by District 186, have one of each of the high schools' colors - black, blue and red - blended together.

Kayla Seck, the youth council's president and a senior at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School, told city council members Tuesday that the bracelets were a reminder that many of the students from different schools grew up together and that they had more in common than not. Standing next to her was Springfield High School senior and council vice president Cete Brewton-Wilkin.

"We do not expect these divisions to heal overnight yet we hope that this initial effort in mending a broken relationship will make a difference in the long run," Seck, 17, said.

The Mayor's Youth Council was created for students from all over the city to talk about how to bring back students to Springfield once they went off to college. It's also one of the only groups of students from all of the city's high schools - Southeast, Springfield, Lanphier, Sacred Heart-Griffin, Lutheran - that regularly meets to talk about the issues in the community.

While Seck and Wilkin talked about the bracelets at city council, cheerleaders and some students took to wearing the bracelets during the Southeast versus Springfield and Sacred Heart-Griffin versus Lanphier games.

Three weeks ago, Southeast High School had won the Boys City Tournament and the Spirit Award, for the first time in 15 years.

However, instead of celebrating, students were hit with hurtful comments on social media, according to Gianna Flammini, the Southeast senior class president. She said she saw a tweet about Southeast students “buying” the Spirit Award and that another party replied that “their Link cards came in clutch.” A Link card is a plastic card that looks and works like a debit card and is provided to individuals in Illinois who qualify for benefits.

"It’s mocking a majority minority school and a minority low-income school and that’s in no way right,” Flammini said during District 186 Board of Education meeting last week.

Flammini, who also sits on the Mayor's Youth Council, did not immediately return a request for comment.

During the youth council meeting following the social media backlash, the students, prompted by Mayor Jim Langfelder, talked about the incident.

"There were a lot of emotions in the room," Brewton-Wilkin said.

Several of the people at the youth council were the people who had helped plan City Tournament activities. Hearing from them was powerful, Seck said.

"I feel like a lot of positive things came out of that," Seck said.

The students wanted a fun way to break down barriers, according to Seck. So they turned to the bracelets.

"Sure there are stereotypes that come with every school and neighborhood in Springfield - that doesn't mean we have to accept them," Seck said.